


Connecting the Pieces

by Athene



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Speculation, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2018-10-17 07:59:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10589775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Athene/pseuds/Athene
Summary: Drabbles speculating about the elements of Kingdom Hearts' universe based on loose references or unfinished canon.





	1. The Sage King

**Author's Note:**

> This idea is influenced by the Final Fantasy definition of a sage -- a master of magic. Ansem the Wise is referred to as the sage-king. Written in 2015.

It has long been considered a rite of passage for the future king of Radiant Garden to travel the world and gain knowledge, essentially learning everything he must know to become a great king. The future king would journey and learn from the healers, from the leaders of scattered towns, and even--so say the legends--the lord of the dead. From them he would gain the knowledge to guide his people, aid his sick, and defend his weak.

From the healers, he would learn the divine arts to restore health and refresh the weary.

From the city leaders, he would learn of shields and various protections, as well as their weaknesses.

From the lord of the dead, he would learn the elements that devastated people's lives.

In Ansem's time, the story of the rite has been considered an exaggeration--after all, there were no far off healers or large cities or "lord of the dead" in the world. But the tradition endured in the form of the future king traveling every inch of his kingdom, innovating from what he saw of the world and contributing to the growth and prosperity of Radiant Garden.

Unbeknownst to the present era, the ancient rite of passage was in fact the story of the king leaving the world to visit the other worlds beyond his reign. He would seek inspiration and new ideas and master the known magical powers, becoming a pillar of knowledge and strength for his kingdom--a sage. 

Ansem became the first king of Radiant Garden's present era to learn about the outside worlds. To further his research, he gathered the data necessary to create the Space Paranoids digital world within his computer, and also befriended the visiting King Mickey. He hoped that the next king of Radiant Garden would be able to accomplish what he could not, traveling the worlds and bringing back new ideas to share with the people.

He had high hopes for his adopted son, Ienzo. The boy was naturally bright and curious, from what he gleaned, and he hoped that his tragic circumstances would open him to great empathy as he grew older. Ienzo also had high potential for a broad range of magic that he himself lacked, from what he learned from King Mickey's friend, Merlin.

But those were hopes that could be nurtured when the boy was a little older and when Ansem himself knew more about the outside worlds. In the more immediate present, there was a young man with amnesia who needed his attention...


	2. The Origin of No Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once upon a time, there was an old man with a heart large enough to span the universe...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written in 2007, before Birth by Sleep was released in 2010. Broad speculation based on the three main protagonists' names and Master Xehanort's appearance.

Once there was an old man whose heart was larger than any other’s in the entire universe. He could traverse the worlds like none could, on solar winds and astral waves and the terra incognita, to watch over the worlds that he cared for so much.

However, in his watching of the worlds, he noticed a most formidable enemy approaching. An encroaching darkness that could not be stopped, and would most certainly leave everything to uncertain oblivion. 

The man did not know what to do. He could research the darkness and find out just how malicious it was, or take the steps necessary to preserve the worlds that he had come to watch over like a parent would its children. But where could the worlds escape to, where the darkness could not follow? 

He soon decided that there was no possible way for him to save all the people, their homes, and their worlds. Even the hearts of the worlds could not shelter all the inhabitants if the darkness was as powerful as he feared. But he could shelter those hearts—and the memories, emotions, and powers of the heart—in the one place large enough and compatible to shield them:

His own heart. 

With all of his amazing powers, the old man removed his own heart and created from it a vast world of endless light. In this endless light, the hearts of the worlds could surely hide and recover if the darkness tried to take them.

He wove through every heart a thread—a heartstring—that would lead them to his heartland if they were threatened. And then he entrusted to the heavens, earths, and waters the means to free the hearts if they should ever be trapped.

Seven hearts of shining light were entrusted with the location of his heartland. Only together would they be able to find the heart of all worlds, but even then their combined power could not open it.

To the heavens, earths, and waters, he also entrusted the key to his heart—the key to the heart of all worlds. This key would cycle through the three bodies; should one fall to darkness, another would take up the key in the following cycle. One of the hearts of shining light would always be a part in the cycle, as a failsafe should the other two fall to darkness. In this way, the heavens, earths, and waters—the Trinity—could restore the universe should the darkness ever recede.

All seemed well with his plan, and for a brief while the old man was able to revel in his own peace. But then the darkness came, swelling and pulsing and so very terrible, sweeping through the worlds and plundering the very hearts that he tried so hard to save. Some floated free and escaped to his heartland, while the cycle of the key in the Trinity began as a countermeasure against the darkness. But he had made a grave error in all of his plans.

The old man never once considered the idea that he could be swallowed by darkness.

And when the darkness took him, he had no way to fight back, no way to resist. Almighty in light, he was equally terrifying in darkness, and he became a heartless gaunt always in search of that which could make it complete. But he could not touch his heartland, which had grown even more powerful with the hearts contained within, and was repelled completely. And so the old man, the heartless gaunt, went after the Trinity with its powerful, corruptible hearts.

He became known as the No Heart, forever unable to join with his heart. His most sought after treasure, the heart of all worlds, would become the legendary Kingdom Hearts.


	3. Hazy Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ienzo has hazy memories of his father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Speculation based on Kingdom Hearts X [chi]/Unchained X. Written in 2016.

In the hazier parts of his memory, Ienzo remembered his father. He had a quick smile and kind eyes, from what Lord Ansem could recall of him, and those were what he often transposed onto his face when he thought of him. While he had more defined memories of his mother, he found it surprisingly difficult to summon up many specific instances of his father.  
  
Some memories that he could recall with a certain amount of clarity were ones of his father meeting a family friend. She was an older woman, with sparkling amber eyes and dark hair that had yet to show any hints of gray, who greeted him with the same loving enthusiasm that she aimed at his father. Though he could not remember what they discussed, he knew that there were occasions where he would doze in his father’s arms while they talked for seemingly hours.  
  
It was all relative in the mind of a tired child. What mattered was that they were close friends.  
  
When he lost his parents, he was too caught up in his own confusion and sadness to think beyond the scope of his own loss. It was only later—much, much later—that he realized that his father’s friend was also lost that day.  
  
He also learned that she was Braig’s mother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should note that this was written before the reveal of the fourth union leader in Union X [cross]. When I wrote this drabble, the idea was that Ephemer was Ienzo's father and time shenanigans led to him and Skuld ending up different ages when they arrived in the current world of light.
> 
> So imagine my surprise(d delight) when we see what the fourth union leader looks like.


	4. A Greater Purpose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Light and darkness cycles. As inescapable as love and sorrow. It's the way of the universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by similarities in KH and the thought that nothing is ever a coincidence in this canon.

"Yes, it's all true."

His stomach churned at those words--confirmation to the growing revelation that threatened to overwhelm him. He lifted his hands from the console to instead clutch at his sides, forcing away any thoughts of becoming ill.

"It's all led up to this moment."

Marluxia-- _Laurium_ , he corrected himself--leaned against the far end of the console, studying him with wry amusement. "Breathe, Ienzo. The evidence is all right there in your brain. You know what they are all fighting for."

Ienzo slowly turned bewildered eyes away from his unexpected guest, seeing nothing as he started pacing the lab.

Everything had led up to this moment. _Everything_. His entire _life_.

"...Why me?"

Laurium, arms crossed as he lounged, tapped his bicep in thought. The question was expected, but not easy to explain. "It doesn't matter. We're doing exactly as we should be."

"It _does_ matter!" The simple answer lit a fire in Ienzo, his voice rising in passionate anger. "The Book of Prophecies doesn't-- doesn't _choose_ anyone. So a decision was made--sometime, somewhere, somehow--by _us_."

The five of them. Just like they were chosen by someone--not by a book, but by a person.

The names slipped away, but the memory still lived on in his heart.

A sigh passed Laurium's lips as he slipped his hand free, holding it up to stop a further tirade. He looked past his gloved hand at Ienzo's anguished expression, flexing his fingers just enough for his Keyblade to appear in a billow of cherry blossoms.

"I believe you can see where this is going," he continued, easing his arm back and resting the blade against his knee. "Ventus, Ephemer, Skuld, and myself--all of our Keyblades came back. The legend caught up to us again, or it simply ... woke up."

Ienzo's clutching hands climbed from his sides to his chest in cold realization. "It's still sleeping." It. His Keyblade.

Grimly pleased that the younger man was following along, Laurium nodded. "And maybe it will never come back. That's what we are all hinging our hopes on, remember?"

Ienzo held his breath, letting that thought sink in and line up with the other puzzle pieces he had just deciphered. Very slowly, he nodded as well. "And everything else? Coming to Ansem the Wise? My skillset?"

"A happy coincidence, I think. If it wasn't you, someone would have learned the magitechnology required to rebuild the book. Maybe that grumpy pilot on the Restoration Committee, for instance." Those minute details would never make their way into the Book of Prophecies, as they held little value from cycle to cycle.

A skeptical expression flickered across Ienzo's face, but he said nothing. Legends--half-eaten memories of those who survived the cycle--had painted the Book of Prophecies as a creator of miracles, even as the book itself was lost and dissolved into the realm's datascape. With another Keyblade War imminent, there was little opportunity for anyone else to delve through Ansem the Wise's data and siphon the remaining pieces from the vast datascape.

It was chilling how much this felt like fate, his hands pulling away from his chest to summon forth the reconstructed Book of Prophecies. The large book was light in his arms, despite its size being comparable to his torso.

 _"The fated land will be the battleground for a great war. Light will see defeat and expire, while darkness prevails evermore."_

Laurium shut his eyes as he listened to Ienzo speak aloud the passage, tapping his Keyblade against his knee.

 _"The first enemy, always and neverending. The second enemy, minds divided, a creature born of ignorance. The third enemy, the herald of the world's end. The fourth enemy, lurking behind closed eyes."_

"And while all of this happens, Kingdom Hearts plays its role. All under someone's all-seeing eye."

Ienzo pressed his lips together, thumbing the thick spine of the book. The Book of Prophecies did not truly foretell the future, as the deceptive name implied; instead, it told what had happened in the past and what would happen in the future, over and over again, as a cycle with no end.

The realms of light and darkness would coexist--the living beings in the light and the Heartless in the dark.

Something about the darkness would entice someone in the light, leaving strife and pain with no conceivable explanation in its wake.

The Heartless would cross over and consume, leading to the eventual birth of what they called Nobodies.

Kingdom Hearts would arrive in the peak of battle, whisking away the released hearts into the world of sleep.

And there they would sleep, dreams and memories eaten away, until the worlds turned over. Darkness would consume the world of light, and Kingdom Hearts would shut its doors. With time, the sleeping hearts would awaken in a void empty of the deepest darkness, ringing in a new era of the realm of light.

A chosen few were protected from the Nightmares by benign Spirits, retaining their memories of another life--of another side. Sleeping beyond time until someone came to wake them.

Lauriam. Ventus.

Those who lost their hearts and bodies could be reborn, in time. Their bodies may change, their minds may never quite recover, but... Their hearts' potential remained the same.

Ephemer. Skuld. Himself.

It was the way of the universe. It was as inescapable as love and sorrow. And yet they still managed to hurt that natural order, breeding needless conflict with the construction of a single weapon.

His mind was still reeling, but he knew. His heart knew.

"The next cycle needs you. Because you remember, and you haven't manifested a Keyblade."

He clutched the Book of Prophecies close as he spoke what Lauriam did not.

"The new realm doesn't need the Keyblade."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Book of Prophecies is said to have a lot of things in it. The doomed page that led to the UX Keyblade War is said to have been _"The fated land will be the battleground for a great war. Light will see defeat and expire, while darkness prevails evermore."_ So I wondered ... what else could have been in the Book of Prophecies?
> 
>  _The third enemy_ is a reference to Another Side, Another Story, referencing Nobodies.
> 
> "Sleeping" in KH seems to be a state that can exist beyond the flow of time, as seen with Ven and the Sleeping Worlds in DDD.
> 
> Master Xehanort argues for a balance between light and darkness; without one, there isn't the other. Now expand that idea to a greater scale.
> 
> And the Keyblades are man-made attempts to subjugate Kingdom Hearts' light, with some eventually turning the Keyblade to instead defend the light.


End file.
